


Jolene

by myharlequinromance321



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-01
Updated: 2015-05-31
Packaged: 2018-04-02 07:10:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4050934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myharlequinromance321/pseuds/myharlequinromance321
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jolene Walker is mutant with a troubled past, but what mutant's past isn't? She's an anti-social high school drop out, living on her own and working as a mechanic in Montana, until one day, it all changes. Join her on her journey as she becomes the second female Avenger to help save the world from Loki and the Chitauri. OFC/Tony friendship. OC/Bruce platonic relationship. WIP</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introduction

Have you ever been able to look at someone and immediately tell that they had a hard life? It's not necessarily that they look bad, they could be drop dead gorgeous, but it's their eyes. Those eyes hold pain and sorrow and memories of the hardships they have faced. That's how people see me. How do I know that? It's rather simple really, I can hear their thoughts. Okay, so maybe it's not simple to normal people, but it's all I've ever known. I'm what the government calls a mutant. A genetic anomaly. Something got jumbled up in gestation and I was born with special powers. Those powers are great in some ways, and I wouldn't give them up for the world because even though I have lost so much as a result of them, I would have never grown into the person that I am today without them. I have had a hard life, but many others have had similar or worse ones, so I'm not going to bitch about it. Yeah, my father beat me and my mother and she blamed me for his anger, but I'm still alive aren't I? And that's more than I can say for a lot of people. Being kicked out when I was fifteen was the best thing that could have happened to me because it meant I got to leave that god forsaken house and that god forsaken town behind. I didn't even mind dropping out of school because there was nothing they could teach me that I couldn't teach myself with the help of a library.

My sperm and egg donors live in Jasper, Wyoming and that's where I spent the first fifteen years of my life. As soon as I got back on my feet after being booted out of the house, I high tailed it to Montana, Missoula if you want to get technical. I know it doesn't seem that different from Jasper, but I actually like the land, just not the proximity to my troubled past. I was able to put my extensive knowledge of cars to use and swung a job at an old auto repair shop in the not-so-nice part of the city. Sure, they were reluctant to hire a teenage girl, but once they saw me work my magic with an engine, I got them job in a snap, a snap that involved a suspicious amount of grumbling, but a snap nonetheless. I live in a crappy studio apartment in the same neighborhood as the garage which works well since I can't afford my own car. There's a library five blocks over that works as my entertainment and satiates my academic needs as well. Those are the three places where the vast majority of my time is spent. I sleep and eat and read and work on cars. I love my life the way it is.

Oh, I guess I never really said what my mutant power is did I? I gave some not-so-subtle hints, but I'll just lay it all on the table, so there is no future confusion. The most "normal" power is my eidetic memory, meaning I literally cannot forget anything I see, smell, hear, or feel. I have what is called superhuman mentality, it basically means that I have the ability to have an intelligence way above genius level, so far above it that I have gained the psychic ability of telepathy, not that I'm tootin' my own horn or anything, those are just the facts. Even though most of the happenings mentioned in the above, happened when I was fifteen, I am now, writing this, at the ripe old age of eighteen. 18 years, 76 days, and 5 hours to be exact, but who's counting? You may want to know why I'm writing this and my response is, first of all, you are just full of questions aren't you? The rest of my response is simple because I think it makes a damn good read and if there's one thing I love, it's reading.


	2. How it all started

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Well, Miss Walker, it would appear that you are here. I can assure you that I am not looking for trouble, but I am going to need you to come with me."

Chapter One

"It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood," I sarcastically thought to myself as I walked down the busted up sidewalk that my apartment building and workplace shared. Looking around I was greeted with the picturesque sight of a homeless man peeing on the wall of the shady pawn shop across the street. Yep, this was the place I called home. Sure, the city itself was actually rather nice, it even had a great college, but I would never be able to afford living in the nicer parts, and I was happy enough where I was. "Hey, Jolene!" The abrupt exclamation from Mike, my boss, alerted me to the fact that I had arrived at work. "Are you gonna just keep standing there like a fire hydrant, or are ya gonna come in and do your damn job?" I sighed and turned to Mike, taking in his disheveled appearance, from his grease stained jumpsuit to his dark brown eyes and receding hairline, he looked like your typical middle-aged mechanic. Contrary to his brash words, he's actually a pretty good guy. Mike's pretty much the only person I actually enjoy being around and speaking to. He gave me a job at fifteen and makes sure the other guys don't give me too much hell. "Yeah, okay Mikey, just let me get my suit on and I'll get started on that carburetor for Harry Spiegelman." This earned a good-natured scowl from the gruff man. He hates it when I call him Mikey, so of course I do it all the time. Walking into the enclosed office space on the left side of the garage, I stopped by my locker to get my uniform, then went to the bathroom to change. Once that was out of the way, I made my way over to my current work station and got to work on that busted carburetor.

Working on cars always has a calming effect on me and makes me feel at peace. About an hour later I had finished my work on the part and was preparing to put it back in it's place. In the middle of putting it up, I suddenly felt a new presence in the garage. I didn't recognize the feel of his mind and when I tried to listen in on his thoughts, I was met with what felt like a steel wall. "That is so cliché," I thought to myself as I slowly turned around, trying to make as little noise as possible. I moved to hide behind the car that was jacked up next to me and listened intently, waiting to hear who this stranger was and why they were here. "Hello, Mr. Howard. My name is Nick Fury and I was wondering if you knew anything about a girl by the name of Jolene Walker?" Damn, he sounded intimidating as hell! I began to panic, going through the last few weeks in my mind, wondering what I could have done to make this man some looking for me. I took a chance, peeking around the back wheel of the car, trying to get a look at the mysterious man. "Eh, do I know you? I don't recognize you, so how do you know me? And what do you want with Jolene? She's a good girl and if you're looking from trouble, I'll call the cops before you can get any." It was official, Mike was a godsend. Bless that man and his protectiveness of me. I craned my neck to see if I could get a clearer view of the stranger because all I could see from my current vantage point was their shoes and what looked like the bottom of a...trench coat? "Dammit," I thought to myself, "No good ever came from a man wearing a trench coat, except for maybe Sherlock Holmes, but that's it." I soon realized that I would have to move if I was ever going to see the weirdo, so, as quietly as possible, I began shimmying closer on my stomach. "Finally!" I exclaimed internally, I could see the man, Nick Fury, who was looking for me. Hell, if I thought his voice was intimidating than I don't know what to call the rest of him.

He was extremely tall, easily over six feet, dressed head-to-toe in black, mostly leather. The man even had a black leather eye patch! My first thought was, " I bet he doesn't even need it, he's just using it look scary." But on closer inspection, I saw the three deep scars running from about an inch above his eyebrow, to the middle of his cheek. "Okay, so he's either really dedicated to the act and knows an amazing makeup artist, or it's legit, which is even more terrifying. Great," I quipped to myself. Suddenly his head jerked in my direction and I silently cursed myself, realizing that I had said the last part out loud, so much for my career as a sleuth, Sherlock would be disgusted. Resignedly, I stood up and walked over to the man and my boss, hoping to clear things up because I was clearly not the Jolene Walker he was looking for. The three of us stood there for what felt like hours, before this Fury guy gave me an appraising look and said, "Well, Miss Walker, it would appear that you are here. I can assure you that I am not looking for trouble, but I am going to need you to come with me."

I looked over at Mike for support and he, sensing my apprehension, stepped closer to Nick Fury and said, "What kind of idiots do you think we are? She's not going anywhere with some weird-ass stranger, and even if she wanted to, I wouldn't let her. She's just a kid." Fury didn't look phased at all, in fact he looked smug. "Well Mr. Howard, although it's noble of you to try and defend Miss Walker, I am here on behalf of the government and will be taking her with me regardless of your stance against it." While saying this he brought out a badge and it verified that he was indeed from the government, something called S.H.E.I.L.D, which apparently he's the director of, and it was obvious that it was legitimate. With a resigned sigh, I looked at Mike and told him, "Don't worry about me Mikey, you know I can handle myself. I can also see when to fight and when not to, and I know that we're way out of out league on this one. I'll go with this Director Fury, give them whatever it is that they want, and then I'll be back here quick as a cricket. It'll all work out, you'll see. While I'm gone, don't let any of the other guys take my money from Mr. Spiegelman when he comes to get his car okay?" Mike studied me and then Fury for a few moments before he finally relented and with a worried look said, "Okay kid, it's your call. Get back soon, or else I'll have to hire someone new and we both know that no one else is as good as you." With one last reassuring smile at Mike, I turned to Director Fury with a look of determination and said, "Where are we going?"


	3. Follow the Black Leather

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "This, Miss Walker, is the bridge."

Once we left the garage, Director Fury strode over to a big black SUV, opened the door, and paused with it open, waiting for me with an impatient look in his eye. " Jesus," I thought to myself, pausing momentarily, "What the the hell have I gotten myself into? Oh, well, guess I'll find out soon enough." With a final shake of my shoulders, I closed the distance between Director Fury and myself. As I moved to get in the car, I caught his eye and tried again to look into his mind, hoping that the first time was just a fluke. "Not so fast Miss Walker," Fury glared at me with mild annoyance, "You won't be finding anything in there. I have come prepared." That was not what I was expecting and I froze with one foot in the SUV and the other on the pavement. I guess I shouldn't have been all that surprised really, it made sense that he knew about my powers. Why else would the government be interested in me. Recovering quickly, I continued on into the vehicle and, after adjusting myself a bit, looked back at Director Fury with a sheepish smirk and said, "It was worth a shot, sir." Fury stood there for a beat more, looking as if he was making up his mind about something before he moved into the passenger seat and said, "Well Miss Walker, it's nice to see manners for once. Let's see if you can keep that attitude, shall we?" It was like the question mark at the end of that sentence was some command for the driver to go because as soon as Fury's lips stopped moving the vehicle merged smoothly into traffic from it's previous parallel parking space across from the garage. The 30 minutes it took for us to arrive at runway where the small plane was ready and waiting were some of the most awkward and tense ones of my short life. When we finally pulled to a stop I let out a sigh of relief before I could stop myself and received a small glare from the Director in return. Opening my door I leaped out and broke the silence by asking Fury, " Are we going on that thing?" pointing at the small plane that looked more military that anything. "Yes. Now get on and strap in." Blunt, I liked that. I can respect bluntness, especially sense I can't read his mind. Thinking about it, I might not want to read his mind. Peering out of my peripheral I saw him scowling as the motor started and his coat began flapping threateningly in the wind. "No," I decided, "Definitely do NOT want to see inside of that noggin."

A few painfully awkwardly silent hours later I looked out the window and saw that we were approaching water, turning from the window I looked to Fury with a question poised and ready on my lips, but before I could even get a syllable out he swiftly turned to me and gave me the curt response of, "Our base is in the middle of the Atlantic. We are still an hour out. No more questions." He then proceeded to turn back to looking directly ahead, doing nothing..."God!" I thought, "He is so confusing and scary and spy-y!" After giving a huff of indignation I turned back to the window and began contemplating what exactly this was all about. I was almost positive that they knew about my powers, or at least had a suspicion that I wasn't your average teenage human, but what did they want to do with that knowledge. Were they going to do tests on me? No, I doubted that, Fury promised Mike that I would be safe and he seemed to be telling the truth—at least I I hoped he was. So, if it wasn't tests, then what was it? "Oh!" I thought. "Maybe I'm going to become part of some mutant task force of good doers! Hmm, nope, less likely than the testing theory." I kept pondering my immediate future until I noticed that we had begun our decent onto what looked like a giant military vessel. It was HUGE and there were what looked like hundreds of people in various uniforms hurrying around the deck. Fury broke me out of my observant trance when he abruptly stood and shouted, "Walker! Up. Now. Follow me." I scurried—ugh, so not my style, but that man put the fear in me, facial scarring and black leather tend to have that effect on most people-to do exactly that and by the time I was up and out of the plane, he was already halfway across the ship. "Damn. I don't wanna run." I whined to myself, but I did it anyway—however begrudgingly. By the time I caught up with him he was waiting for me at what looked like an entrance to the inside of the ship. With nothing but an annoyed glare he quickly turned, spun more like, to the hallway the the open door led into and began briskly walking down the hall. Feeling a little invigorated after my short run I mall-walked to the man and tried to keep pace whilst not looking too ridiculous. We didn't have to walk for long before we arrived at a wide computer-filled space with a slightly rounded wall of windows. "This, Miss Walker, is the bridge." Director Fury gave a sweeping motion with his arm and it ended on a dark haired woman in, you guessed it, a black leather uniform. "Geez, if I see any more black leather I might start thinking they're the bad guys." I thought to myself. Tuning back into reality, I realised that the Director was still talking to me and I tried desperately to pick up what he was saying. "...Agent Hill. She will take you to the meeting room where you can wait until our other guests arrive. You will all get a debriefing once everyone is there. Now, go with her and do not cause any trouble. Am I understood Walker?" I didn't want to get him mad, so I held my tongue and simply gave a frustrated nod before following Agent Hill. The only thing I could think was "How much more following am I gonna have to do in this place?"


	4. That Little Shit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Hello darkness, my old friend."

Well, if I learned anything about agent Hill it was that she was like a white female version of Director Fury (prettier too). In the five minutes that it took us to arrive at the meeting room she spoke a total of seven words—trust me, I kept count—she said, "Follow me" when we left Fury, and when we arrived at the room "You, stay here and wait." Such eloquence. "I swear those two hold onto their words like Smaug held on to his treasure." I thought facetiously to myself. Now that I was by myself, I took some time to really take in my surroundings. "Hmm, metal, black metal, glass, more metal. Homey." I didn't bother keeping my thoughts in my head since I was all by my lonesome. "I wonder if they lost their funding before they could call in the interior decorator? Tis a shame, tis a shame." Once I was done with my inspection I set to making myself comfortable in the chair farthest away from the door and tried to get a feel for the minds of the agents that kept walking past the door. My range wasn't really long enough yet to feel the minds of anyone much farther than seven or eight feet away from me. A few moments of this though, and I was getting frustrated. All these darkly clothed government drones were thinking was about their petty little orders, "Gotta get that computer fixed." or, "Fury's going to kill me if I don't get him that coffee soon enough." Okay, so the last one was kind of amusing, but not at all informative. "I already know that Fury is an impatient little shit." That one made me snort out loud. "Now what do I do?" That was the real question. I ended up going over to one of the computers to see if there was anything that I could use it for to pass the time as I waited for these mystery people. Logging in to the computer proved easy enough seeing as some rookie never logged out. "Hah," I laughed out, "guess they didn't think to be safe here at home." Like I said, a rookie. Well, after a few minutes of nosing around, I found the perfect thing to help pass the time-and to help take my mind off of why the hell I was picked up by a creepy black leather eye patch wearing dude that says he's with a government agency that needs me for something on a base in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean—and that something was Galaga. "Hello darkness, my old friend."


	5. IS THAT BRUCE BANNER?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You must be Miss Walker. Hello, my name is Phil Coulson, Agent Coulson as certain billionaires would believe. The woman beside me is Agent Romanoff and the two men are S-"

I was off in my world of vintage video gaming when all of the sudden I felt a hand clamp down on my shoulder. I immediately tensed and let out an embarrassingly high-pitched squeak. "Oh my god, I am becoming a Guinea Pig." I thought to myself as I turned around to see just who exactly it was that decided to scare the living hell out of me. "Shit." I gave a sheepish grin, it was important people. As my gaze panned across the group standing before me, I realised a few things. The first was that the striking red head and the nice looking man in the suit were SHIELD agents, the second was that the tall blonde man was amazing looking and just might be Steve Rogers, and the third was "OH MY GOD! IS THAT BRUCE BANNER?!" That was all of course in my head. It may seem strange that I reacted so casually to the fact that the first superhero who, up until recently obviously, had been thought dead. The thing is, when you're a mutant who can read minds and remember everything you've ever seen, not much surprises you. The real surprise was Dr. Banner's presence. I had thought that he was in hiding after what happened in Harlem, but I was obviously mistaken, unless he had been until SHIELD made him come back...yeah, that seemed about right. Dr. Banner was an inspiration to me. He came from a painful and troubled past, but grew up to be one of the smartest people in the world. When his experiment went so incredibly wrong and he had his meltdown, I felt so hugely for him. He was such an intelligent and, judging by the books and articles I had read, accepting and mild-tempered man that it pained me to see his life ruined so swiftly and wholly all in the name of science. He was demonised and ostracised and it just never sat right with me. Seeing him in the flesh was heart stuttering, to say the least.

All of these realisations only took a few seconds in all actuality and, to their eyes, never even occurred. My exclamation led to a somewhat awkward moment of silence before the man in the suit decided to break it. "You must be Miss Walker. Hello, my name is Phil Coulson, Agent Coulson as certain billionaires would believe. The woman beside me is Agent Romanoff and the two men are S-" I couldn't help myself, in the middle of his introduction I butted in with, "Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner, Dr. Bruce Banner, I mean Dr. Banner! Oh God." I face-palmed and and could feel my face getting red. Of course I had to be a know it all and try to impress them, and of course I only ended up embarrassing myself in front of one of my heroes. My outburst brought surprised looks to the faces of the two men in question, and suspicion to the ones of the two agents.

"How did you know who they are Miss Walker?" Asked Agent Romanoff with narrowed eyes. Taking a deep breath I replied, "Well, the blonde man looks exactly like Steve Rogers, or Captain Rogers I'm probably supposed to say, and I just figured that it wouldn't be the least unlikely thing I've ever head of if he somehow survived. I mean he was never found so he could never be declared dead and seeing as he was the only successful recipient of the super soldier serum created by Dr. Erskine, there was no way to be sure of his lifespan or how he aged. He disappeared in an icy ocean, so it would also not be much of a stretch to believe that he was frozen. That mixed with the ambiguity surrounding his genetic makeup and how altered it was by the serum, leads me to the safe assumption that he was frozen and it preserved him in a way similar to what we hope to achieve someday through cryogenic freezing, and if that is the case then it would be absolutely amazing for the top scientists—for instance Dr. Banner, who is an inspiration to me which is why I recognised him, hello sir—to get the chance to study how he was able to survive such harsh conditions for so many years with no obvious physical damage. He could be the key to unlocking eternal youth!" This time even the agents looked stunned. I guess I had come on a bit strong, but they had asked for an explanation. I supposed that they just hadn't expected such a long one, let alone such a long one uttered in a single, wheezing towards the end, breath.

Once again, it took a moment for anyone to break the silence that apparently always came after my speaking. This time, it was Dr. Banner, much to my embarrassment and excitement. "That was amazing! Your thought process is extremely accelerated in comparison to just about anyone else I have ever met, let alone a young adult. I would love to run some tests and get some scans of your brain Miss, Walker, was it?" Normally, I would have been enraged by his mention of tests, I mean, that had been one of my biggest fears if people ever found out about my...special gifts. But this was my idol. The Dr. Banner. His insight on my mutations and brain waves could possibly have help me figure out how I am what I am. So of course I told him, "That would be an honour Dr. Banner. Truly, it would be. As I mentioned earlier, you are, and always have been, an inspiration to me. You made such a name for yourself in the scientific community despite the hardships you faced growing up. You always gave me hope that my life would, could, get better. Thank you for that." He flushed at what I said, and before he could give me a response, Agent Coulson took the opportunity to steer the conversation back to what he had intended it to be when they had first shown up. " Miss Walker, I am aware that Director Fury has not given you much information on why you were...recruited so abruptly," he began. "Hah!" I thought to myself, "Try no information and all but kidnapped." But I restrained myself from interrupting him again and let him continue. "The Director has asked me to fill in those gaps in reasoning that he has left in regards to your purpose to us. SHIELD recently became aware of your powers by way of an unnamed third party. In light of a recent, initiative of sorts that SHIELD has begun work on, we would like to ask you to volunteer your powers to help aid us, and the world, in the fast approaching disaster that has recently begun taking place. Captain Rogers and Dr. Banner are here for the same reason. We strongly advise that you say yes, but understand if you choose to decline our invitation to action."

I had so many questions, but I also had gotten the strong feeling that he and Agent Romanoff were on tight schedules, as was I, if I chose to accept their offer, so I held my questions. I mulled the proposition over in my head for a minute or two. Honestly, what did I have to lose? I had no family or friends, other than Mike, but he could live without me, he did have a family. When the government comes knocking, isn't it usually a safe bet that you should agree to what they want, especially when it was a super secret government agency that mentioned you having a part in saving the world from some mysterious disaster? It seemed too important a situation for me to brood and angst over, at least right at that moment, so I had taken a deep breath, squared my shoulders and said, " I will do whatever I can to help my country and the world, sir. Just know that even I, myself, do not know the extent of my powers. They are often unstable and unreliable, but I do believe that without my powers I still have a lot to bring to the table. I am not guaranteeing that I will do whatever SHIELD wants or asks of me, but I will do what I think is morally sound in the situation."

I once again looked over the people standing in front of me, and for the first time since they arrived, instead of getting looks of awe, or suspicion, I was getting looks of respect, even from Agent Romanoff, however minute it was. I wasn't sure at the time what I had just gotten myself into, but I knew that whatever it was, my life was never going to be the same. This was a turning point, much like when I left my parents, or when I made the decision to go peacefully with Director Fury. My life was about to be turned upside-down in the best, and worst possible way.


	6. Powers and Grandad Justice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It means that you could be the most intelligent being on this planet and you could be a superhero."

"Well then," started Agent Coulson, "since you seem to know so much about who they are, why don't we let them know a little bit about who you are?" Oh no, I thought internally, I did not want to do this. This was always the worst part of school, standing up there in front of all the other kids and having to give the little spiel about yourself, except this is worse because it's Grandad Justice and my idol, Dr. Tortured Genius. I was going to have to think of something though because they were just standing there, looking at me with these curious and expectant expressions. "Hi." Great, of course I started off awkwardly, "I'm Jolene, Walker...Jolene Walker, and I'm a mutant." There, blunt and to the point, putting the M word out there. If they don't like it then, well, I don't know, but I won't like them that's for sure. When I came to out of my inner musings, I realised they were still looking at me expectantly, well, Captain Rogers and Dr. Banner were. Giving them a questioning look I asked, "Are you just going to keep looking at me or are you going to comment on the mutant thing? Most people usually go into the whole abomination speech, or they want to send me to be experimented on, or they just kick me out." That seemed to ignite something within both men and both of their faces took on reassuring looks. "No, Jolene, if I may call you that, we were just expecting you to say something else in terms of your introduction." Bruce assured me. "Oh, well, um let's see, I am 18 and a mechanic, I don't have a high school diploma, I read minds, I like chicken tikka masala, and I live in Montana." Their jaws dropped. I tried to work the whole mind reading thing into the middle there so maybe they wouldn't notice it, but judging by their reactions, I would say they did.

Steve, looking a mite suspicious, implored, "Mind reader? Does that mean you're reading our minds right now? Is that how you actually knew who we were?" Quick to reassure him-my how the tables have turned-I said, "No! No, most definitely not! I would never, well-at least not anymore-misuse my power like that. It would be dishonorable and it would make me the monster that people think I am when they hear that I'm a mutant." I stamped my foot down at the end, having got caught up in my passionate appeal. I mean, c'mon, of course I'm not going to invade the privacy of my idol and the world's first superhero. I doubt that Agent Romanoff would be any better than Director Fury, and Agent Coulson just seems too well meaning to infringe upon his mind in that way. I can get past walls, like the one in Fury's mind easily, but when I enter a mind and I see walls, unless it's absolutely vital, I'm not going to violate them like that. The wall is there for a reason. I've never met anyone that I couldn't actually access mentally, I've had some tough cases, but they were when I was young and before I decided that it wasn't my right to do so, they don't count.

Looking satisfied with my answer, the impossible soldier nodded and turned to leave with Agent Coulson. "Wait!" I yelled after the agent, "Aren't you going to tell me what I need to do? Like how you're going to put me to use in this, still unexplained by the way, 'fast approaching disaster'?" Turning back to look at me the older man said, "There's no time for me to, I have to take Captain Rogers..." I swear he blushed a bit when he said that part, "...to the bridge to see the Director. I am sure Agent Romanoff would not be opposed to briefing you on the situation and your role in it." And with that, he and The Captain were off. Dr. Banner was still standing somewhat awkwardly in front of me and when I turned to look at the red-haired agent now standing next to him, he gave me a sheepish smile, which I returned with a beaming one of my own-I mean, how could I not? "Agent Romanoff, could you please tell me why I'm here?" Scrutinizing me with her seemingly ever-present intense stare, the woman acquiesced. "You are here because the Director thinks that your superior intellect, in combination with Dr. Banner's and one other's, will help us locate the Tesseract more quickly. He also wants to use your powers to try and gather more intel on the madman that currently has said tesseract. And to answer your question, the tesseract is a cube of what seems like pure energy that we have little understanding in terms of how it works or even exists." Wow, that is a lot to take in. "You know I'm really not going to be much help on the whole locating the tesseract thing, right? I mean, Dr. Banner and this third party are plenty of brain power I'm sure." She just kept staring at me except now there was a little bit of annoyance in her look, "Well Miss Walker, we will just have to agree to disagree. I trust that you will do as is requested of you and now I will leave you to get to work on your task with Dr. Banner. Now, I've got to go fly a plane." As she was saying this, she was already on her way out the door and before I would even build my breath for a reply, she was gone.

It was just me and the Doctor now, no reason to be nervous or anything, it's not like he's my primary role model or anything. "Umm, hi, I guess now that we've been introduced, we better get hoppin' on that tesseract thing, even though I have no idea what I'm doing, because the attractive red haired lady scares me a bit...or a lot...like pants shitting a lot." Oh god, well, I am one classy broad. I closed my eyes in defeat and fully expected him to have just up and walked out of the room by the time I opened them, I wouldn't blame him, but surprisingly he was still there, just looking at me with a calm amusement. "Why are you just standing there?" I asked him a little hesitantly. This seemed to sober him up because he immediately got a more academic look on his face and told me, "Well, there's not a lot to do right now. I've already given them advice on how to find this madman, so now we just wait until they've found him and brought him in. Which I imagine will be pretty soon because I would assume that's why the Captain and agents Coulson and Romanoff left so abruptly." I nodded and decided to just walk around the room until something caught my interest. Dr. Banner seemed to realize what I was doing and wryly offered a piece of advice, "Why don't you play some Galaga?" This must be a dream. My favourite person is in the same room as me, and he's playfully teasing me. This is too much, take me away Yahweh. But it was reality, and in reality, I blushed because I am already shit in social situations, but I become a shrinking flower around cool people, or at least people I think are cool. Dr. Banner noticed this as well, and decided to sit down at the table. Looking at me imploringly, he said, "Would you like to sit and talk for a little while? I have a feeling that it's going to be a few hours before they get back, even if they did find him. I would like to more about your mutation, if that's okay with you." I stood there for a beat before I decided to carpe diem that shit because it's not likely that I will ever be in the situation again. "So, Doctor, what would you like to know?"

"First off, what all can you do? Is there a name for your powers?" He asked rather excitedly. "Well, from what I can find on the internet and through the books at the library, I have what they call Superhuman Mentality, which basically means that I have such a high intelligence level that my brain is in overdrive and I can read minds. Supposedly, with practice and patience, I can expand that to telekinesis and who knows what, the possibilities are pretty limitless, intelligence infinitum." Bruce seemed amazed at the prospect of limitless intelligence, and I could see him queuing up many more questions. "Okay," he said, "so do you know the exact names of these possible additions that you could attain?" Sighing slightly, I prepared for a long explanation.

"Well, I know that brain manipulation is a very likely possibility seeing as I can already access people's minds. It means that I could evolve to be able to control any and every aspect of someone's brain, including my own. I'm talking autonomic system, levels of hormones released, anything within the brain, so basically anything within the body. Then there's computer perception, that means that I could pretty much think like a computer, which would be pretty crazy, but I don't think I want that. Then there are enhanced inventing and scientific intuition, but those comes along with the super intelligence territory, you and most of the other geniuses in this work have these, think Tony Stark and Reed Richards. Mr. Stark also has, in my belief, mechanical intuition, he intuitively knows how mechanical devices work and he can just draw them up in his mind with little effort. That's why his weapons company was always so ahead of the others. I have this with cars, for sure, I bet if I put my mind-pardon the pun-to it, I' be able to apply it to virtually any other mechanical concept. Hyper intuition is another possible power. This one I'm not too sure about, I don't know much about it. I am sure that I have psychic shield powers though. I don't have definitive proof, but it seems like it would go along with the other powers I already know I possess. That's about all I know, and even all of that information is iffy. Wow, that was a lot to put out there. I'm sorry if I'm giving you an overload, it's just nice to be able to tell someone who will actually be able to understand these concepts."

I gave the Doctor a moment to process all of the information I had just thrown at him and, within a few minutes, he was beaming at me. I had never felt so proud of my mutation before. "Do you know what this means, Jolene?" He asked me enthusiastically. "What does it mean, Dr. Banner?" "It means that you could be the most intelligent being on this planet and you could be a superhero."


End file.
